At MatTek every Monday, boxes after boxes which are maintained at 39 degrees are loaded. These boxes contain dime sized pieces of human skin! Each of these pieces is in plastic dishes, and it adds up to around two adult humans worth of skin.

This skin though is not got from people, but it is harvested by MatTek. They grow their own skin and then sell it to those companies that need it. The companies that need human skin are those that deal in laundry detergent, toilet bowl cleaners, makeup, tanning lotion as well as anti-ageing creams.

If this skin was not produced in such large quantities, the companies would have been forced to test their products on animals, especially rabbits.

This growing of human skin is being done by MatTek as well as a subsidiary of L’Oreal which is known as Episkin. This is great as not only is it ethical but also it is practical, and it simulates human skin better than animals can.

XCellR8 is a company that tests these products for brands such as Lush Cosmetics. These use skin from MatTek. However, to the naked eye, this skin does not even look like human skin. It resembles circles of clear jello which is less than a fifth of a millimeter.